The Volleyball Tracking System was already tested at the FIVB Volleyball Women's Club World Championship Zurich 2014

Lausanne,
Switzerland, May 30, 2014 – Following the pledge of President Dr. Ary S. Graça F° to innovate the sport of volleyball, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) is currently trialing a Volleyball Tracking System, which provides
real-time data and statistics, at the Montreux Volley Masters
2014, taking place in the Swiss lakeside city until Sunday.

The
tool provides statistics on movement, the speed of the players and the ball, in
addition to the strike angle, with all the information available to view
online.

Developed
by the start?up
Playfulvision, this new tool, which was already tested at the FIVB Volleyball Women's Club World Championship Zurich 2014, is set to
be used in all international volleyball competitions following a contract
signed with the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) in April.

Coaches
and television broadcasters can select the statistics they need and how they would
like them to be presented, with the new tool allowing data to be displayed directly
on the selected screen. The analytical statistics service will be available soon
for the GoPro camera, making the technology readily available to other sports
and teams at all levels.

"This sort of technology will help us grow the sport of volleyball, make it more accessible for the public and provide greater detailed information for TV and more importantly coaches of our sport," President Graça said. "Anything which can help present our sport in a more dynamic way has to be encouraged and we are looking forward to seeing this sort of technology in full use at our World Championships later this year.

While other sports monitoring systems exist in international soccer
competitions and basketball for example, this one offers several advantages. The
Playfulvision system is fully
automated, which makes it cheaper and easier to install. In its professional
version six cameras placed around the field or court are connected to a
computer.

This innovation is based on three algorithms developed at the Computer Vision
Laboratory. While players can always be located on the screen via an overlay
with the colour of their jersey and number, the challenge was to achieve this
recognition continuously, even when players are in groups and hidden behind
others.

In
Montreux, the start?up aims to demonstrate the range of possibilities of this
system to the FIVB before it is used more extensively at the World Championships
this summer. The tracking of results with an IPad will also be developed specifically
for this occasion.

The
Montreux Volley Masters is an invitational tournament, officially recognised by
the FIVB, which gathers the best women's teams in the world.

The 29th edition of the Montreux Volley Masters
will take place from May 27 to June 1. Pool A comprises Brazil (WR 1, current
Olympic Champion, 2013 World Grand Prix title holder and winner of the FIVB
World Grand Champions Cup), China (WR 5), Russia (WR 6) and Switzerland (host).